Sweet 16 Party (reveal)!!

February 20, 2012

Here’s the secret project I was working on last week.

A SURPRISE Sweet 16 Party for my daughter!!

A little mom moment – {I am so proud of my Hayley. The teenage years seemed so scary to me when my kids were young. And we did have a couple bumpy years when she was about 12 or 13. But it is so fun to have this beautiful girl in my life. She has been working so hard. She has been trying to get healthier over the past year by eating well and working out and has lost about 30 pounds. She also is doing great in school and is so dedicated to her lacrosse team. She went on her first date this weekend — I cried just a little bit.}

And while she was gone on her date, our family went into over-drive getting a SURPRISE party set up. It was so fun!!! She had NO idea.

My friend Amy from Living Locurto made a custom party package for this party – including those awesome 3-d numbers. Amy is SO talented!!! I love the hearts and bright colors — it’s so Hayley!!

Check out the cute Heart Birthday Banner. And the Cupcake Toppers. And the Straw Flags. Everything is so fun. Amy will be selling a version of this party soon in her Living Locurto Printable Shop. She can personalize it for you too!

We made all kinds of treats for the festivities. Plus, tons of chips and dips and appetizers.

We also set up a Photo Booth.

For the background I used plastic tablecloths. And then hung paper fans of different colors and sizes, overlapping. It was so bright and pretty!!

It was such a fun night. And the best part?? She had NO idea. She was so surprised!!

I also made a paper chandelier out of paper lanterns. I just attached them together and hung them with twine from the ceiling. I used battery-operated lights to illuminate them with no wires.

She was so surprised!!

I love these kinds of moments.

Thanks again to Amy at Living Locurto for the printables for the party!!

Love the colors and always a great idea with the photobooth for a sweet 16 party! Everything is very clean, colorful and vibrant. It feels girly without being too girly! Love how everything turned out!

my mom did a surprise party for my sweet 16 – waaaaaay back in the day. i remember it like it was yesterday. i am sure she will cherish everything you did & all those special touches. i love the paper laterns from the ceiling & the fun fans in your photo booth.

This is such a cute party. I LOVE the wreath that you made. Do you have a tutorial? What material did you use? Felt? I want to make a rainbow wreath like it for St. Patricks Day. If you could just point me in the right direction I’d appreciate it!

Your daughter looks FANTASTIC! Happy 16th birthday to her! I am terrified of the teenage years, myself! I’m already noticing a tiny bit of attitude coming from my 9 1/2 year old, and I don’t like it one bit!

Your daughter is gorgeous! And the decorations all were beautiful. Fun colors. Great attention to detail. Love the paper lanterns. And most importantly, I’m sure your daughter could feel all the love you put into everything. Fabulous job.

CUTEST PARTY EVER! I LOVE COLOR! so I just adore all the fun happy color. Hayley looks great congrats to her on her weight loss success. She is a beauty. She had a great turn out too. LOVE IT ALL. xo, jen

WOW!!!! Everything looked perfect and it looked like she had a great time!!!! My girls are still fairly young (10 and 6) but I can’t wait to have fun birthday parties like that for them! I just love your blog, such an inspiration to me! Thanks for sharing!

Wow…so nice. I wish I had Pinterest and blogging when I threw my girl her 16th party. I remember it was so hard having it a surprise. I had to have her girlfriend do the inviting cuz I didn’t know the friends she’d want to invite. I knew a few…but not enough for a party. For center pieces I wrapped various empty boxes in brown butcher paper (of which I had a huge roll on hand) and tied big bows out of bright colored netting. The netting is cheap and makes a big statement … I actually am still reusing the netting on my Christmas tree. When in doubt I enlarge baby and toddler pictures to display and have the kids sign. Did your guests eat much? I realized, after several kids’ teenaged parties, that I could throw out a bag of chips and one bowl of dip and still have stuff left over. They seem to be embarassed to eat in front of one another. They do drink tons of soda though. sorry this is so long…you just brought back some memories for me….Happy times.

This party is absolutely ADORABLE!!! LOVE all of those bright decorations!! Where in the world do you get your beautiful paper for all of your projects? I have looked through all of the scrapbook paper and it just isn’t pretty like the stuff I see on your blog. Would love some tips!! Your daughter is a lucky gal!

Hi Jen,
I love the paper fans that you used for your backdrop. We are having a Girl Scout dance and I would like to do a similar. Would you share where you purchased yours. They are so bright and cheerful and I love the different styles. Thanks for your help and great job on your daughter’s party!

i love your 16th birthday surprise party. I will be saving this post so I can use the ideas when my daughter turns 16, which isn’t too far away. Don’t they grow up so fast. Enjoy her while she is still home with you! Thanks for the ideas, fabulous!!!

Love these ideas! I will definitely have to remember the photo booth for future birthday parties. I have a son turning 16 this fall, man-thanks for making me realize that! I don’t know if we’ll do much for it not because I wouldn’t want to, but he’s a bit shy and it’s harder for boys. He should also get his Eagle Scout this summer though so we’ll go big for that! That, he’ll let me do.

How fun that your son is turning 16 soon. I threw a surprise party for my son when he turned 16 and he had always said he didn’t want one. But I think he was happy that we did it. He had a fun time. He’s super shy.

My son just got his Eagle too. that’ s great that your son is doing that!!

What a cute party!! Love the colorful decorations and the fun food. Your daughter looks like she had a blast. The photo booth was a genius idea!

Oh, Jen, this post totally took me back to my sweet 16. It wasn’t a surprise, but my parents planned a fun cookout and we had a bunch of my guy and girl friends over. It was one of my best and most memorable parties. Not even close to a feature on that old MTV “My Sweet 16″ show, but it was special to me, and that’s what’s important.

Your sweet 16 party sounds like it was so fun. My parents threw me a sweet 16 too and it wasn’t a huge thing but it’s something that I will always remember too. I was hoping to create that same feeling for my daughter. I think she will really love looking back on the party.

Still not buying that you have a 16 year old! You look 16 yourself. Great party! She’ll remember forever.
My girls are 7,7,6,3. I’m already worried about teen years!!
Jeannie
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